Bring back the newbie jail

[blacksails]

We need to bring back the newbie jail. Now we've tried to let everyone post everywhere, and honestly, it was way better before (even though it was kinda annoying.)
Since it was removed the forum has been flooded with useless one line comments on threads that has already been answered. More old threads than ever are being necro'd and lots of new thread are created spreading FUD.
So please admins, restore the newbie jail.

[NLNico]

I am against newbie jail. I don't think any open forum should have a restriction like that.

I think the "signature spammers" are a bigger problem. (those people who have been here 2 months with 3000 posts) But obviously this is another discussion.

[Mitchell]

I am all for the newbie jail and I don't give two shits that the forum has to be open. I hate all those newbies coming in here, spreading FUD, creating bullshit topics and just spamming the place. The newbie jail was a good way to prevent that from happening.

[QRCode]

I think newbie jail is necessary although I was newbie!

[NLNico]

I just doubt it will work anyway. Bitcoin is growing and so is this forum. In January 2013 there were 66.163 new posts and in January 2014 there were 620.113 new posts. I am not sure if the more spam/FUD are a direct effect from disabling the newbie jail or just this forum growing a lot (and attract more idiots/trolls/spammers/annoying kids/etc - who will be the same after 5 posts and 4h waiting.)

There could be several forums in which Newbies (those with less than 30 activity level) cannot create new topics, like the Speculation forum. I think that could potentially be good against FUD newbie topics? Obviously in some forums they should be able to make new topics to ask for help or something.


And like I said, I think signature programs paying users per post are a more serious spam problem/cause. But there is another topic for that.

[BitCoinDream]

Newbie jail is required. The bitcoin discussion is flooded with baseless topics.

[Xian01]

I am against newbie jail. I don't think any open forum should have a restriction like that.
I think the "signature spammers" are a bigger problem. (those people who have been here 2 months with 3000 posts) But obviously this is another discussion.

 You can turn off viewing signatures in your user preferences. It's what I ultimately did to mitigate the problem.

[Zephir]

I am against newbie jail. I don't think any open forum should have a restriction like that.
I think the "signature spammers" are a bigger problem. (those people who have been here 2 months with 3000 posts) But obviously this is another discussion.

 You can turn off viewing signatures in your user preferences. It's what I ultimately did to mitigate the problem.

That won´t stop the main problem.
They get money, the more they post.
Some user have started to comment everything with a one liner.
It´s really annoying.

Please, stop allowing paid signatures ( or only them which pay for posting).

[Mitchell]

I am against newbie jail. I don't think any open forum should have a restriction like that.
I think the "signature spammers" are a bigger problem. (those people who have been here 2 months with 3000 posts) But obviously this is another discussion.

 You can turn off viewing signatures in your user preferences. It's what I ultimately did to mitigate the problem.

That won´t stop the main problem.
They get money, the more they post.
Some user have started to comment everything with a one liner.
It´s really annoying.

Please, stop allowing paid signatures ( or only them which pay for posting).

Or or, hear me out on this one. Only allowed it for Full members and higher. Much easier.

[Light]

I don't think any open forum should have a restriction like that.

While I agree that in theory this forum should be like that, in practice it is a different story. There are now way too many shills and scammers just creating a new account and going off to post random useless crap again. I've seen a large upswing in 'Good, +1' etc since the newbie restrictions were removed (maybe I'm just looking for these kinds of posts more).

[hilariousandco]

Or or, hear me out on this one. Only allowed it for Full members and higher. Much easier.

Well most deals are now limited to Members and higher because of the signature changes. Newbs can't have links in their signatures and thus are excluded.

But I think the Newbie Jail should be brought back.

[Dalmar]

Yes, please bring it back... The quality of this forum has been going down.

It might put off some new users, but the ones really interested in bitcoin/highbrow new members will stick around.

[FenixRD]

While admittedly correlation is not causation, and there is significant increase in attention to Bitcoin, there is no denying that this forum has become far lower quality in terms of signal-to-noise since April 2013, and especially beginning September or so.

I don't like newbies being relegated to some socialist-like same-punishment-for-all Newbie Jail as it used to be. It would be far preferable to the current situation. However, I'm a firm believer in the notion that there are always more options than the ones given. (Given options are: Keep it as is, which we all know sucks, even the newbies; or, return to the prior jail system.)

I note that we also seem to have lost the ability to paint awful users yellow by clicking their *ignore*. If you're newer around here, the way it worked not long ago at all (before the last hack and downtime, actually) was you'd click the IGNORE link, and there were two side effects. One was, you didn't see the posts: You just saw that they posted, and could selectively expand the post (for example to figure out the context in the even that someone *else* replied to them). The other was, the more members clicked it, the brighter yellow it would become, eventually looking like this:

Ignore


I'd like to see this re-instated. Moreover, I'd like to see it include the Lurker ratio to modify the hue of yellow. As in: The newer you are, the less Ignores it takes to paint you yellow; and, with a bias for quality over quantity (the lower your Lurker ratio, the quicker you become yellow as well).

...I guess I should define the Lurker ratio for those who don't know how it works. This is the two figures beneath an avatar (well, where the avatars used to go; now only older folks have 'em. So, where the nickname/handle goes), entitled Activity and Posts. Activity represents the amount of time you spend actively logged-in and browsing the forum. Posts is as it says on the tin: Number of posts. A high Lurker ratio means you spend a lot of time logged-in and reading, but little time talking. It doesn't guarantee high post quality, but it is a strong indicator of a user who is *likely* to produce higher-quality content.

[counter]

I don't know I think there is a good reason for the newbie jail simply to help sort out the scams and spam from those that want to add to the discussion in a positive manner.  That being said I'd hate to subject a newb with good intentions to that kind of environment but maybe that is the best way for them to learn what Bitcoin is really all about meaning the good, bad and ugly in a sense and they will appreciate getting out of newbie jail that much more.

[basementdweller]

I've barely escaped the newbie prison but I think it's a good idea to enhance quality in the main sections.

If you improve on explaining the reasons for this measure and offer good moderation over there it will do no harm.

[guybrushthreepwood]

I'm all for the restrictions. If people can't be bothered waiting a short while or dealing with them then they don't deserve to be here.

[Onews1990]

I agree this has just filled the forum with excess spam and some people are making 1 day accounts and spamming and abusing giveaways.

[guybrushthreepwood]

I agree this has just filled the forum with excess spam and some people are making 1 day accounts and spamming and abusing giveaways.

Giveaways have been banned haven’t they?

[hilariousandco]

I agree this has just filled the forum with excess spam and some people are making 1 day accounts and spamming and abusing giveaways.

Giveaways have been banned haven’t they?

Alt coin ones have. Other giveaways usually exclude newbies as well.

[cdog]

Quality of posts is way down and troll/garbage topics are way up since the new forum members area was removed.

Honestly, it makes me want to come to this site less and less, because the signal-to-noise ratio is at an all time low.

I wont even go into general Bitcoin Discussion anymore. Its a shitshow now, a total mess.

I dont know the logic behind removing the new members area, but it needs to be re-examined.